Lost and Found
by Rusty Fingers
Summary: A pedophile evades the Miami crime lab only to turn up in Vegas, leading Horatio to team up with Grissom and his crew of CSI's in order to catch him. This chance meeting between the two supervisors has startling repercussions on their personal lives.
1. Chapter 1

Warning: The following story deals with situations and themes that some readers may find disturbing and offensive. References are made to child abuse. There will also be a slash pairing in the last chapter of this story. Not your cup of tea? Don't read on.

I own none of this. If I did, Grissom would still be with us.

####

Lieutenant Horatio Caine stood, hands on his hips, wind rustling his carefully cropped hair, looking for all the world like he had his eyes closed behind those sun glasses, just enjoying the sun on his face. Bystanders and newer police officers vaguely thought this if they looked at him. Alexx, Calleigh, Eric and Tripp all knew different.

Horatio's eyes were open, scanning the crowd for anyone of possible interest in the case. They then shifted, as did his stance, to scan briefly over everything in sight, followed by a closer scrutinization of anything pertinent or strange. No, he wasn't enjoying the sun though he had noted it's position upon arrival, his mind was focused acutely on the crime scene before him.

He hadn't bought or blackmailed his way to the head of the Miami-Dade crime lab. He had earned it and safeguarded it not by pandering to those in positions above him but by surrounding himself with colleagues he could trust with his life.

"What do we have here Frank?" His voice rumbled with authority and the need for perhaps one more cup of coffee. It was eight in the morning.

Tripp squinted into the sunlight as he looked towards the open door of the house. The house could have been any house in any middle class neighbourhood in Miami. Terracotta roof tiles, small palms in beds on either side of the yard. The only thing out of place was the crime scene tape, the flashing lights and beige uniforms of the police surrounding it.

"Female DB inside, Alexx is working on the identification but the house belongs to the Renfrews. Judging by the photos inside, I'd say it's likely Misses Renfrew in there."

Horatio nodded at the Texan and walked towards the front door. He came to a stop in the entrance way and removed his sunglasses to look at the body as Alexx probed the woman's pockets.

"You're going to have to get her husband to ID her for sure Horatio, this poor woman was just going out for the paper, wasn't planning on needin' her ID for that." Alexx stroked the victims head before gently turning it from side to side.

"Cause of death Alexx?" She doesn't fault him for being short on pleasantries this early in the morning or at any other time for that matter. She knows Horatio is a man of few words as he knows she is woman unafraid of her emotions.

"Manual strangulation, I've got bruising consistent with two hands around the neck. She's been dead maybe an hour Horatio" Alexx shook her head as Horatio furrowed his brow and slowly looked up to the family portrait on the wall.

"Alexx, when do you send your kids out to the bus stop for school in the morning?" He paused after saying her name then laid out the sentence carefully.

Alexx stopped her examination and looked briefly at the body before gazing back up at Horatio. "Around 8:30, why?"

He was already out the front door, sunglasses on, when he answered over his shoulder, "those kids would have still been home with her."

Calleigh was walking towards the house with her kit when she met Horatio striding out of it. "Calleigh, I need a thorough look over the crime scene. Get prints from the entrance and DNA samples from each bedroom to the lab immediately. I think we may have a kidnapping on our hands."

"You got it," was all she responded.

"I'll be on my cell phone."

He walked toward his Hummer and opened the drivers side door as she turned towards the house. Their relationship was complicated and long standing. At the core of it was a trust both Calleigh and Horatio did not share with another human being. They saw little of each other outside of work but understood each other on the most basic of levels. It was when Calleigh transferred to CSI from policing that Horatio had found the freedom to exercise his investigations on another level. She gave him the edge needed to put their crime lab among the top in the country and not simply by being an amazing criminalist. Their pasts shared common themes. They hadn't needed to go into detail with one another to know that.

####

The offices of Dade Standard Accounting were unimaginative which did not surprise Horatio in the least as he stepped down from the Hummer. He was doing what he always did in analysing his surroundings even though this wasn't a crime scene. If dwelt upon, the thought of having to tell another person their life was about to be horribly changed forever would ware on him, so Horatio focused on everything but. It was when he was standing in front of the desk of Michael Renfrew that Horatio gave himself over to it and listened and looked.

An astoundingly good judge of character, Horatio saw only in Michael Renfrew grief and stunned disbelief. Everything the Lieutenant was expecting.

"Mr. Renfrew, was there anyone who would want to hurt you or your family?" Again, the pause after the name followed by the careful sentence.

Michael pursed his lips and shook his head a little, "No...no, no one."

Horatio waited, patiently but sensed the man needed time. He cast his gaze downward before speaking quietly, "okay. You're going to need to stay somewhere else tonight, do you have family in town?"

"Yeah, my sister Annabeth..."

Horatio looked Michael in the eyes, "I'm going to need her address and phone number so I can reach you when there's news, okay?"

Michael nodded. Horatio turned to leave when he heard Micheal say hesitantly, "Lieutenant Caine?" Horatio half tuned and looked sideways at him. "Wh...what are the chances of finding my boys?" The man's lips quivered and tears formed in his eyes.

Horatio looked down before slipping his sunglasses on and returning his gaze to Michaels, "I'm going to do everything in my power to find them."

The words sounded hollow, Horatio knew, but he needed to say them. You couldn't stone wall a many who had just lost everything and might never get it back.

####

Stepping out of the elevator, Horatio headed immediately to layout where, as predicted, Calleigh had photos of the crime scene laid out and was running a stack of fingerprints.

He stopped next to the table and placed his hands on his hips. "Talk to me."

Calleigh looked briefly at her supervisor before turning the computer monitor towards him. "Lot of prints just in the entranceway, most of them are from the two boys, Adam and Danny, a few from mom and dad and a full palm print, not from any of the family. I'm running it through AFIS now. Eric is still at the scene."

"Okay. The father confirms the boys were home with their mother this morning. Do we have DNA samples from the boys?"

"Yes, Valera is doing up their profiles now." Calleigh looked at Horatio and saw the thoughts going through his mind. So far nothing probative had turned up at the crime scene besides the print which could take hours to run. They were momentarily stymied and it bothered him.

Neither CSI needed to tell the other that the first few hours in a kidnapping were the most important.

"I don't see a motive so far, the Renfrews weren't wealthy, what is the kidnapper hoping to gain from this?" Calleigh asked as she slipped a print card out of the scanner.

This seemed to spur Horatio out of his thoughts as he flipped open his cell phone. "I'm going to call Tripp, see if anything turned up in the neighbourhood." He turned away from Calleigh as she resumed her look over the photos, occasionally glancing up at the monitor.

"Frank, have you found out anything interesting from the neighbours?" Horatio had one hand on his hip, the other on his phone as he looked out the glass doors into the rest of the lab. His mind started to fire as Tripp spoke in his ear and a beeping came from the computer behind him. Turning back towards Calleigh and reading the screen while Frank finished, Horatio's stomach clenched apprehensively.

"Frank," His eyes met Calleighs as he spoke, "We just got a hit on an Andrew Callum's print from inside the house. I need you to find out everything about this guy and call me back." His voice, still gravelly, had lost it's sleepy undertone.

"Priors for assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful confinement and sexual assault," Calleigh listed off, "he was paroled four months ago."

"Calleigh, pull up his parole officers information for me." He had a bad feeling about this. If he was a good judge of character, he was a phenomenal judge of a scene. He could feel bits of information lacing themselves together to form a picture for him and the details were disturbing.

####

Pete Hempter's desk had not been cleaned in some time and the amount of paperwork on it was baffling. His Shirt was rumpled as was his hair and Pete had not shaved this morning. All minor details, all unsurprising. Parole officers, much like child services, had too many cases and not enough good people to handle them. Horatio stood in front of Pete's desk for three minutes while he argued on the phone with a parolee and cast impatient glances Horatio's way. The three minutes were just a courtesy to an overworked, underpaid government employee and they were up.

Hitting the button on the phone, Horatio ended the call and spoke immediately, pronouncing each word clearly and spelling out exactly what he needed in his deep, characteristic timbre.

Pete was so astounded by Horatio's looming stance and complete disregard for him that he complied without retorting. He handed Horatio the file who immediately opened it and started digesting facts. Current address, employer, compliance with parole conditions.

"What's this about?" Asked Pete.

"Andrew Callum is a person of interest in a kidnapping case," Horatio offered, not looking up from the file.

"But...no, Andrew has been a model parolee, was a model prisoner. That's how he got early parole, good behaviour..."

The part of the file Horatio had been hoping would simply not be present hit him coldly. 'sexual assault...adolescent boys...preference for four to eight year olds...'. His face was normally placid and difficult to read but something about the look on it now gave Pete Hempter pause.

Horatio looked up at Pete with that cold stare and said, "Good behaviour...clearly," before turning on his heel and walking out of the office.

His phone buzzed and he flipped it open as he walked outside, "Frank."

"Horatio, I've got Callum's address. I'm gonna take a few uni's over there and see what we can find." Frank's voice never seemed to waver and his Texas lilt steadied Horatio's racing thoughts slightly.

"Take Calleigh with you. I'm heading to his work." He closed the phone and pulled himself into the drivers seat, sunglasses on, and tore out of the parking lot.

####

Sun and Shade Landscaping operated out of large tin garage in an industrial park. On a Tuesday afternoon, only one truck was parked outside and the garage was mostly empty save for the odd half disassembled lawnmower and piles of bags of clippings. The corner had a sectioned off office cubicle with no roof, so James Hartford heard the door of the Hummer slam and looked up to see the red headed man in a dark suite approaching.

Hartford, a man of the soil, had little liking for suites or skinny fellas but his opinion of Horatio grew more favourable as he brushed aside his suite jacket to let his hands rest on his gun and his hip, his badge glinting in the afternoon sun. Hartford stood and beckoned Horatio into the office.

"What can I do for you officer?" He asked as he opened the door.

Horatio stepped inside, "Mr. Hartford, I'm Lieutenant Horatio Caine with the Miami-Dade crime lab. I'm here to speak with you about an employee of yours, Andrew Callum."

Hartford shrugged, "Andrew, yeah, good worker, strong back. What's the trouble with him?"

"Did he show up for work today?" Horatio tilted his head to look at askance Hartford, which unnerved him.

"Sure did, on time like he always does." Hartford was getting a chill from Horatio's tone and the look in his eyes.

"I need the addresses of any houses he was scheduled to work at today and any he has worked at in the past. And Mr. Hartford, I need a description of the company vehicle he will have been driving." Horatio held the thin frames of his sunglasses in his hands as Hartford set about gathering papers and scribbling on them.

Standing with the smell of oil and grass about him, Horatio could feel his team closing in on this predator. He had just one question for Hartford when the man handed him the papers.

"Andrew Callum is a convicted pedophile. How did he end up working at the home of a family with two young boys?" He just managed to keep the snarl from twitching his upper lip.

Hartford looked stunned, "What the hell are you talking about? He told me he got locked up for assault, some gang related thing." He was sweating as Horatio's glacial-blue eyes bored into him.

"I suggest the next time you find such a star worker, Mr. Hartford, you don't let that keep you from doing a proper back ground check." The line delivered with almost a growl, Horatio replaced his sunglasses, turned and left.

Five minutes on the road and Horatio's phone buzzed against his hip. He flipped it open, "Frank."

"Horatio, there's no sign of him here but it looks like he was plannin' a trip. Some personal effects are missing. Calleigh's also found a pedophiles wet dreams worth of kiddie porn, all a' young boys." Frank's voice was steady but Horatio could feel the disgust there and knew if he were with Frank now, he would see it too.

"Boys four to eight are his trigger Frank. What's the general state of the apartment?" Forcing down his fear, his disgust and his prayers, Horatio took his mind where it needed to be to think and nothing more. He needed to think.

"Place's clean as a whistle, OCD to the nines. I wouldn't have spotted that anything was up if I hadn't looked in the bathroom."

Horatio's mind processed facts as he replied to Frank, "Nature of the beast Frank, he planned this and has been planning it since the day he got caught the first time." He shook his head. "I've gotta go Frank."

Horatio dialled while keeping one eye on the road. "This is CSI Caine, I need a BOLO on a green Ford van, license plates Echo-Juliet-Mike-Two-Nine-Nine. Suspect is Andrew Callum, Caucasian, five-eleven, 165 pounds. Possibly travelling with two boys, Adam and Danny Renfrew, aged six and eight."

Horatio closed the phone and slid it into his pocket. His jaw clenched a couple times while he tried to decide his next move. Shoulder checking, he moved into the right lane and took the next turn-off.

####

The light of a dying sun pierced the big bay windows of Horatio's living room. The red head sat, not on his couch which was plush and inviting, but at a desk in the corner of the room. His suit jacket had been discarded on the couch and Horatio sat with the sleeves of his baby blue dress shirt rolled to his elbows, collar button undone. He was leaning over Andrew Callum's file, elbows resting on the desk, a cup of coffee next to him.

'Callum appears to show desire to be well thought of...is clean and well organised...shows no aversion to a hard days work...has completed his mandatory psychology sessions satisfactorily and ahead of schedule...'

Horatio took a sip of coffee, then stared at the picture of Callum, his face looking slightly dejected. His eyes moved to a picture of the two boys.

He had worked until 7:30 before ripping off his gloves and leaving Callum's apartment. Every room, every cupboard, every drawer, every crack in the linoleum, Horatio had meticulously picked the place apart after Calleigh and Eric had been through it. That was after he did the same thing to the Renfrew's home. Coming up empty handed was not something Horatio was used to and he hated how, especially with this case, it left him feeling helpless.

His blue eyes turned sad gazing at the picture of the boys. Like he and his brother had, the Renfrew boys were about to have the innocence of youth stolen from them by a selfish monster. Focusing on the wall above the picture, his features became drawn as memories of his mother bleeding and begging came to him. He remembered holding his brother and whispering fiercely to him not to cry. It would only incense their father, further proof that two pale, scrawny boys would never amount to the men his sons should be.

Screwing his eyes shut and putting his face in his palms, Horatio felt for all the world in that moment that his father was right. The man he himself wanted to be would have found these children and he hadn't.

He hadn't.


	2. Chapter 2

Gil Grissom sat at his desk studiously avoiding the neat piles of paperwork on either side of it and reading the Journal of Forensic Sciences. The supervisor of the night shift was leaning slightly over his desk to read, resting on his elbows and keeping a good posture. His index and trigger fingers occasionally rubbed against the thumb of his right hand, as if there should be a pen there. His brow was slightly furrowed behind his glasses and his lips were pursed. It had been quiet lately. His team was tying up loose ends and going over cold cases. If he were superstitious, like most of his team and many of the officers they worked with, he would be concerned with the current lack of criminal activity. Most of them thought it portended some large scale crime wave once all of that stored up crime reached critical mass.

Grissom was not superstitious.

He was a scientist and for all the world out there, he would rather be immersed in knowledge, finding new ways to catch the bad guy. That left little room for many things others felt very necessary to live a full life, superstitions among them.

"You know, you could be taking this eerie break in cases to do some of your desk work." Catherine's wry tone broke Grissom's concentration and he looked over his glasses at her. She was leaning against the door frame of his office, arms crossed in front of her chest, wearing a black suit and her usual bright smile.

Here was woman who embodied many of the finest qualities of humanity, in Grissom's mind. She was tenacious, hard working and loyal. She had taken the ball of being a woman in this man's world and run with it, never apologising for it. Yet she was still caring, one of the most caring people Grissom knew and he knew it first hand. He was not an easy person to get close to yet she had managed to. She knew when he was loosing his hearing and all she insisted on doing for him was being there. That compassion made her the Watson to his Holmes, he had asked her perspective on the human element of their cases time and again.

"Staying on top of research is desk work." He stated matter of factly, with a small shake of his head.

The blonde raised her eyebrows and cocked her head to the side, "funny, it's not the type of work I usually get saddled with when you're out of town."

Grissom gave her a sharp smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes and shifted the hairs of his well trimmed beard, "I'll start on it after this article, promise."

"Yeah yeah, come have some dinner with me and Jim in the break room." Catherine dropped her arms and turned to leave.

Grissom watched her leave with a small smile playing across his face and a feeling akin to contentment. It felt good to have time to actually sit and have a meal with his colleagues, two people he respected and cared for. While everyone else was worrying about what they might next need to worry about, Grissom flipped his journal closed, stood and walked towards the break room still smiling.

Jim and Catherine already had their respective meals in front of them and coffee in their hands when Grissom walked in. Jim smiled up at him.

"What? No murders no love? I haven't seen you in two weeks."

Grissom grinned as he bent down to the fridge to retrieve his dinner, "It's been a week at most, Jim, and I for one am excited to just talk with you about baseball."

Jim smiled with a mouth full of sandwich. His phone rang just as Grissom sat down next to Catherine.

After a few hurried chews and painful looking swallow, Jim flipped open his phone. "Brass."

"How's Lindsay doing?" Gil asked, moving his food around with a fork.

"Good. She's turning into quite the little artist. You should see the drawing she brought home the other day," Catherine beamed.

Grissom smiled with his own mouth full of food. They both looked up as Jim closed his phone. He immediately took out his notebook and started to scribble in it.

"Looks like quiet time is over. Gil, sounds like I'm gonna need CSI on this one." Jim sighed as he put his hands on his knees to push himself up. "Should I grab Nicky?"

Wiping a grain of rice from the corner of his mouth and setting his food down, Grissom slowly shook his head. "No," he said after he finished chewing, "you haven't seen me in a week. Maybe it's time for me to get out and stretch my legs a little."

Jim shrugged as he started towards the door. Catherine caught Grissom's eye as he stood to follow.

"Stretch your legs, huh?" She looked away from him and gave a small laugh.

"Hey, Jim needs a CSI, I'm just doing my job." Grissom said as he followed the detective out the door. "If something comes up, you can reach me on my cell."

"Mmmhmm." Catherine intoned after him, shaking her head and taking a harder than necessary bight of her food. The piles of paperwork on his desk loomed in her mind.

####

Grissom put the vehicle into park as he looked around the semi-deserted stretch of road. It was dark and the only light nearby came from flares around the crime scene, headlights and the blue and red strobes of the police cruisers. The two lanes of road were surrounded by scrub and desert, a power line running down the south side. Las Vegas proper glowed in the distance. Slinging his camera around his neck, Grissom grabbed his kit from the passenger seat, opened the door and slowly stepped down.

Jim had informed him that patrol had found the van on the side of the road an hour ago. The generic black vehicle had been empty and unlocked, allowing the officers to see the smears of blood inside. This precipitated the call out to CSI.

Grissom held up his Maglite and flicked it on, walking a slow circle around the perimeter of the van, his brow furrowed in concentration. As he carefully avoided the foot prints surrounding it, he could make out the marks of the officers boots, plain soled and easily recognisable, approaching the vehicle, circling it, standing at the back doors, then leaving. Apart from that, another set of adult sized prints were vaguely distinguishable alongside some scuffs and smaller shoe prints.

Setting down his kit outside of the ring of shoe prints, he stepped into the officers prints by the back of the van and ran his flash light over the interior. There was certainly blood in the back.

Grissom fished inside his pants pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He skimmed his list of contacts while glancing back at the van.

"Warrick, I'm gonna have this van towed back to the lab, I need you to go over it. I'm going to stay here and process the scene." Grissom closed his phone. His brow was again furrowed and the muscles of his jaw could be scene working beneath his beard. He wasn't one to jump to conclusions, especially with so little evidence actually before him. But this van, something about it was bothering him.

"License Plate comes up as a stolen Honda Civic," Jim said, walking up to Grissom.

Grissom nodded and walked around the front of the van, running his light over the dashboard until he found the small, 17 characters of print he was looking for. He grabbed the notebook from inside his CSI field vest and jotted the number down, then went about photographing everything of note.

As the tow truck was backing up, Grissom stood to the side of the scene, scanning over it all one last time. His face was still full of concern. He forced himself to turn away and trust that he had found and photographed everything important. Quickly raising a hand in goodbye to Jim, Grissom climbed into the Denali and backed away from the now truly empty stretch of back road.

####

Back in his office, Grissom again sat at his desk though there was none of the quiet calm about him that there had been earlier. A bomb could have gone off in the lab and he might not have noticed. His attention was focused on his laptop and the DMV records web page currently pulled up on it. Grissom gripped the mug sitting to his left about it's rim and raised it to his lips. Having tried vehicles registered within Nevada and come up empty, he had now broadened his search and the site was crunching through an enormous amount of data.

When it focused in on a vehicle description, Grissom set down his mug and pulled up the information. "Stolen fleet vehicle...landscaping company...Dade County, _Florida_, hmm." Pulling up the incident information, Grissom smirked as he saw the attending officers listed. Lieutenant Horatio Caine, Miami-Dade CSI.

Catherine had had some interesting tales of the Miami lab from the Rittle case she and Warrick had worked on with them. 'A little scientist, a little cop...kinda sexy...' was what she had said, in private, to Grissom of Caine. She hadn't said he'd been difficult to work with and that was now, in retrospect, a relief.

Grissom checked his watch and did a quick calculation of time zone as he was dialling the Lieutenant's number, concluding he would probably get Caine's voice mail. He was surprised when the deep voice answered swiftly after two rings.

"Horatio."

Grissom's eye brows went up as he leaned back in his chair, "uh, sorry, I was expecting to get your voice-mail Lieutenant Caine. This is Gil Grissom calling from th-"

"Doctor Grissom, head of the Las Vegas crime lab. What can I do for you?"

Grissom blinked. Twice.

"I...I have a, uh, case...in Vegas that, um, that I think you might be able to shed some light on."

"Go on."

Normally a very careful speaker and not easily distracted, Grissom was at a loss as to why exactly this man was throwing him off so much. He chalked is up to the time of night, after all, he wasn't used to people being alert this time of night. Especially not at the time of night he knew it to be in Florida.

"You have listed an Andrew Callum as a person of interest in a vehicle theft." Grissom waited for a response. "Lieutenant?" He said after a moment of silence from the line.

"I'm here. What exactly have you got up there?" Grissom noted the change in the other man's tone. Difficult to catch through the deep gravel, but he thought he could hear a tenseness enter into Caine's voice.

"Just a van, a black Ford. It doesn't quite match the description in the file but-"

Horatio cut him off. "Doctor Grissom, I'm booking myself on the first plane out there."

"I don't...don't think that's necessarily-" he was doing it again. Why the sudden change in voice, why the urgency?

"What was it you found in the van that made you call me at three in the morning?" Horatio's voice was coming across exactly as that, urgent. As though this was life and death. As though this was exactly the type of case Grissom had been afraid it might be, standing at the side of a deserted road looking at an empty van.

"Blood."

Horatio didn't waste a second responding before the line went dead, "read the details in my report, Doctor. It wasn't just a vehicle theft and that is why I need to be out there now."

Grissom moved the cell from his ear and looked at it a moment before gently closing it and turning his attention back to his laptop. Navigating through a couple of government pages, he finally made it to the detailed case information.

Grissom removed his glasses and stared straight ahead, digesting everything he had just read before standing and tossing his glasses on the desk. He made his way quickly to the garage.

Warrick was in a white lab coat with orange safety goggles on, leaning over the driver's seat in the van when Grissom walked in.

"Warrick? What have you found?"

Grunting slightly as he extracted himself, Warrick turned to face Grissom and found himself suddenly worried when he saw the frown on his supervisors face. "A lot. I mean, enough to keep DNA and trace backed up to Christmas. This vans worse than a cheap motel room in the back and on the outside? It's been on the road for a while."

Grissom's frown deepened somewhat. "Keep at it, I'm going to have Nick come down and give you a hand." Without really looking at Warrick, he turned to leave.

"Griss?"

Turning at the doorway, Grissom looked at Warrick.

"What's goin' on with this case?" The younger man asked.

"I think we've got a child molester in Vegas who was using that van to conceal two children he abducted in Miami. I think that van is all we've got to go on." He didn't offer any more information than that, simply turned and left.

Warrick looked at the empty doorway for a moment before turning back to the van. He ran his eyes over vehicle with a new sense of distaste and, rolling his shoulders, went back to swabbing.


	3. Chapter 3

Grissom was walking towards layout, beginning to feel like this was going to be a long night, when one of the double entrance doors was pulled back. Glancing up from the file in his hand, he paused as a man with a most stunning shock of red hair entered the lab.

Horatio had put on a fresh suite and a clean shirt before heading to the airport so, for someone who hadn't slept in almost 24 hours, he looked impeccable. Grissom ran his eyes over the stranger, starting with the hair, noting square shoulders, the lack of a tie and the polished dress shoes. His jacket slung over one arm and a small rolling suite case set beside him, Horatio looked about the reception and locked eyes with Grissom.

Horatio scanned Grissom just as quickly, the somewhat wild curls of his hair, neatly trimmed beard with traces of grey, casual long sleeve shirt, pressed slacks and dress shoes. Both men took only a second to do what came naturally to them by now, assess people for the tiny details that might only become important later.

"Can I help you?" Grissom called out softly. He couldn't bring himself to be any louder in the lab at night, especially when it seemed so tense with this case.

"Yes, I'm looking for Doctor Grissom." Horatio rumbled. There was no sleep in his voice though the unobservant might have taken his usually deep voice for just that.

"You're Lieutenant Caine."

Horatio may have smiled with his eyes, Grissom couldn't be sure. He held up the hand clutching the file towards layout anyway. "Let's get started. My team is just ready to sit down and discuss what we've got so far."

"Thank you." Horatio inclined his head slightly before tipping his suite case and following Grissom down the hall. He was grateful for the Doctor's cutting to the chase. The chase was really all he was interested in.

Entering the glass-walled room, Horatio had a sense of familiarity as he looked around the room at the faces of the thirty-something CSIs gathered around the table.

The youngest of them had frosted blonde tips and looked like he was busy coming into his own, eager and observant, standing on the shoulders of giants. A brunette stood next to him, high cheek bones, arms crossed and full of intensity. Catherine stood next to her and she gave him a welcoming smile when their eyes met. She caught the smile in his eyes as he noticed her and inclined his head slightly in greeting. He did the same for Warrick who stood, hands on his hips, next to her. Another young man was to Warrick's left, jet black hair and strong jaw, arms crossed and standing tall. Horatio looked around the table at all of them and sensed their apprehension and anxiousness. They were chomping at the bit.

"Lieutenant Horatio Caine, this is Greg Sanders, Sara Sidle. you know Catherine, Warrick and Nick Stokes." Grissom held up a hand and indicated each of his crime scene analysts to Horatio. Each of them gave him a "hi," or, "hello" or a nod. "Lieutenant Caine heads the Miami-Dade Crime lab. His team caught the case down there."

Turning slightly to Grissom and then around the table as he spoke, Horatio followed with, "Thank you for having me in your lab, I appreciate how disruptive it can be to have someone unfamiliar around when you're trying to work a case. Let me assure you all, I'm here to catch this man, just like you." He paused for a second, looked down a moment, then carried on, "If it couldn't be my lab that finished this case, I'm glad Callum made the mistake of coming to Vegas so that you can." His voice was low and his words metered.

Grissom had fixed Horatio with one of his intense stares as the man spoke. He got the feeling these were more words than you might hear Horatio speak in a week and that he was being sincere. Sure enough, he turned to Grissom and briefly looked at him before turning his attention to the table.

"All right," Grissom said, "what do we have?"

Greg looked around the table somewhat shyly before he started. "Sara, Catherine and myself did a basic knock and talk of the gas stations and corner stores within a five mile radius of where the van was found. We got nothing. No one remembers seeing Callum, the van or the kids."

"We did, however, manage to score about 10 hours worth of video surveillance from those business' as well as from any business along Horizon Ridge Way that had cameras facing the road," Sara added, "Needless to say, we haven't gone through any of it yet but there's a good chance that, around one in the morning? One of them caught that van."

"If we can figure out what direction Callum was going or coming from, it might give us a place to start," finished Catherine.

Warrick rubbed his hand over his mouth before flipping oven a file on the table and spreading out a few pages. "Nick and I processed the van and it was..." Warrick paused and Nick clenched his jaw as he looked away from his colleagues.

"We found a lot of bodily fluids," Warrick continued. "Wendy is still processing some of the samples but it looks like we've got contributions from Callum, Adam and Danny in the back of the van." He didn't go into any more detail than that. He didn't have to. "The um, the van's oil pump was worn right out. Couple that with 2500 miles of driving and Callum just plain seized the engine."

Nick cleared his throat. "The van was repainted, from forest green to black. There was a lot of dust on the outside of it, a lot of trace in the tires, few bugs in the grill. We've got Hodges backed right up with most of that. Grissom, we need your bug sense to see if you can make anything of the mangled critters from the grill."

While Nick was speaking, Jim quietly ducked in to join them. The room turned to look at him as soon as Nick was finished.

"Anything Jim?" Grissom asked.

The Captain shook his head, "nothing new." He offered his hand to Horatio who shook it firmly. "Jim Brass."

Horatio gave Jim his name before turning back to the table. The room now full, everyone in the circle about the table looked to Horatio. He could feel their energy. He could feel his own resonating with it.

"Andrew Callum did absolutely everything in his power to stay out of trouble in prison. If you look at his records, you'd never believe he was convicted of the sexual assault of a minor. He came out of lock up without a scratch on him." Horatio had this information memorised, Grissom noted. He filed that next to the fact that the Lieutenant had answered his phone at three in the morning. "Paroled early for good behaviour, every bureaucrat he came before was convinced he had reformed."

"He looked good on paper," Sara said softly.

Horatio nodded, "he moved from half-way house to a private residence in record time. The job he chose was low profile but relatively well paying for a convict. It gave him access to everything he would need to commit this crime: a vehicle, funds and victims. Other households he worked at where young boys were present never had the slightest problem with Callum."

"In other words, he was showing a a lot of restraint for a sexual predator," Catherine added.

"Yes. His planning was rigorous," Horatio rumbled.

"For all his planning, he's still susceptible to chance. There was nothing planned about the abandonment of that van," Grissom threw in.

"True but I think he'll have made contacts in Nevada as part of his plans. I don't think Callum came to Las Vegas by accident."

"You think he knows other pedophiles in the area?" Jim asked.

"I do," Horatio said quietly, "and it's there I'd like to start."

Grissom nodded his head and looked at his team. "Greg, Catherine, Sara, see if you can find _anything_ on those surveillance videos. Warrick, Nick, start with what Hodges has managed to come up with so far, he'll need help putting that trace into context."

Grissom's team nodded and gathered their papers, leaving quickly and quietly. Their supervisor turned to the remaining men in the room.

"No offence Caine," Jim began, "but I know you have a good idea of how many registered sex offenders there are in Clark County."

Horatio looked at Jim briefly before turning his gaze to the floor. "I do, Jim, I do. If I have to find every one of them to get those kids from Callum, I will."

Jim shrugged and sighed as he looked to Grissom. "All right. Gil, I'll be talking to sex crimes if you need me."

Grissom's eyes followed Jim as he left, then slipped back to look at Horatio. The Lieutenant hadn't been looking at Grissom but had been focused on the table. He now met Grissom's gaze and the Vegas supervisor motioned for him to follow.

"Can I get you anything?" Grissom offered as they walked down the hall.

Horatio's eyes were roaming around the lab, observing the set up, the technicians, the bulletin boards. "No, thank you. Just a desk and internet access."

"You have a theory?" Grissom asked, studying Horatio from the side.

"If you're looking for assistance in committing a crime like this, you would want someone with resources and little to no criminal history, someone the authorities aren't actively tracking because they haven't done anything illegal _yet_."

Grissom let Horatio into his office and proceeded to move stacks of papers off of his desk and onto an nearby shelf. Horatio stored his luggage out of the way and was about to hang his jacket when he was distracted by a tarantula in an terrarium inches from his face.

Miami may have been a bustling centre of urbanization but the Everglades were it's backyard and Horatio had come to expect to meet all manner of critters while on cases. He hadn't expected to meet one here, in this gleaming and spotless lab. It thoroughly broke his concentration.

"Sorry, are you afraid of spiders?" Grissom asked.

Horatio favoured him with a genuine, if small, smile. "Of spiders? No. I've had the pleasure of meeting them in far less civilized circumstances." He paused and stared at the orange and brown arachnid. "It's beautiful," he murmured, tilting his head slightly to the side.

This last comment caused Grissom to fix the other man with another intense stare, like he was looking at a puzzle he couldn't quite piece together. He stepped towards Horatio who looked from the tarantula to Grissom. Grissom held that look for a moment before he took Horatio's coat and turned to place it on the coat rack. In an effort to refocus them both, he pointed towards his desk, "I've cleared a space for your laptop." Horatio nodded once and bent down towards his luggage.

As they sat next to one another, in front of separate lap tops, Grissom noted the number of files pertaining to the Callum case that Horatio has on his desk top. He could tell from some of the names that Horatio had been throwing everything he had at this, even off the clock. Lists of known associates, pedophilia promotion groups in the southern states, persons of possible interest. Grissom knew Horatio had to be exhausted on so many levels but he could not read it in the man. His focus was absolute and he set about opening documents and a search engine immediately.

Grissom followed suite and put the enigma of the Lieutenant out of his mind. When he didn't turn on his computer but instead pushed it towards the back of the desk, Horatio glanced at him. Grissom hefted a couple of large texts onto the desk and slipped his glasses on with one hand. Horatio watched the muscles of his jaw move underneath his beard before glancing slowly down at the titles of the books. 'American Beetles: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea' was on the desk while 'Latin Amercian Insects and Entomology' was in Grissom's hand. Picking up a small plastic vial that obviously contained bits of bug from the vehicle, Grissom began comparing details of the insects to possible matches in the texts.

Horatio was momentarily fascinated and watched Grissom as he had watched Calleigh. Experts on some of the most minute details, their ability to tell bugs and bullets apart was case breaking and Horatio knew it. Horatio loved it.

The two men shortly drifted off into their own worlds, following their own paths to the same end.

####

As the sun started bleeding over the Sheep Range and into the lab's windows, Grissom gradually became aware that his team was returning from their various tasks towards the break room. His stomach grumbled as if on cue and he checked his watch.

Grissom's movements caused Horatio to stir as well. The red head rubbed his eyes and tried desperately to ignore the stiffness in his shoulders and neck. His body was telling him he needed to take care of the basics soon or he would collapse. He needed food, he needed water and a bathroom and if he didn't get some sleep, then he was going to need coffee too.

Grissom pushed his chair back and stood, briefly touching Horatio's shoulder as he did, "I think everyone's ready to reconnect on this."

Walking to the door, Grissom opened it for the Lieutenant and followed him out into the hall. All traces of Horatio's moment of exhaustion in his office were gone, Grissom noted. Shoulders square, he strode into layout ahead of Grissom.

Catherine, and Sara were already there and they were joined shortly by the rest of them team.

Grissom nodded at Warrick.

"Hodges came up with some interesting stuff from the outside of the car," Warrick began. His voice was hoarse and tired. "The dust definitely indicates he's been driving in and around Las Vegas but the soil we pulled from the tread has a high concentration of organic matter. Definitely inconsistent with the type of soil you'd typically find in Vegas. On top of that," He pulled a photo of a small green plant with yellow flowers from a file in his hand and placed it on the table, "Traces of pollen from _Ranunculus triternatus __were found in the front, driver's side tire. This plant is native to Oregon. It would take a very green thumb to keep it growing in this climate." Warrick cleared his throat and stepped back from the table._

_ "Good. Sara?" Grissom shifted focus to her._

_ "We have what appears to be Callum's Van heading south along Horizon Ridge Way on a liquor store's camera. That tells us he was trying to get out of Vegas when the van broke down." She said softly. She, Catherine and Greg had red eyes._

_ "The bugs are telling us he came from Arizona," Grissom placed the plastic vial on the table. "The evidence is pointing us in the same direction as Lieutenant Caine. Callum wouldn't drive up to Vegas through Arizona just to head south again. He came here for a reason, that's what we need to focus on next." _

_ Horatio was standing behind Grissom and to his right, his arms crossed. He was impressed with how this lab had managed to turn next to nothing into some tangible leads._

_ Grissom placed his hands on the table and looked at his team over the rims of his glasses. "Shift ended two hours ago and we're all tired. Go home and get some rest. I'm authorizing overtime on this for anyone who can join me back here in five hours."_

_ Warrick looked around the room, at each of his co-workers before speaking up. "We'll be here Griss." _

_ Grissom again looked at each of them, "Thank you."_

_ Out in the hall as the room emptied, Horatio moved away for some privacy, flipped open his __cell and dialled Eric's number._

_ Grissom stood waiting for him when he noticed Nick hadn't left with everyone else. The young man stood looking unsteadily at his supervisor._

_ "Nicky?" _

_ "Uh, Griss, I'm gonna..." He ran his hand through his hair, "I'm gonna stay and map out where we might find that flower that trace dug up, give you guys somethin' to go with when y'all get back." _

_ Grissom's brow furrowed. "Nick, you need rest too-"_

_ Nick sniffed and screwed up his face to hold back tears he feared might fall. "I'm not coming back...I'm gonna...gonna step back from this one, Griss." He looked down at his feet then up at Grissom._

_ The older man fixed Nick with what he hoped was a reassuring look. "Of course. Nick...you know you never need to feel guilty for not working a case you're uncomfortable with."_

_ Nick sniffed again as tears slid down his face, "I want to be here for everyone-"_

_ Grissom put his hand on Nick's shoulder and looked him squarely in the eye. "And the best way for you to do that is to not put yourself in a situation where you might not be able to," he said softly._

_ Nick nodded to himself, then to Grissom, then walked down the hall towards trace._

_ Horatio had watched the scene unfold as he spoke to Eric. As he stood looking at this supervisor in the moment between hanging up and Nick leaving, he felt a kinship with him. Both men knew what it was like to be close to these people and to have to send them out to do and deal with things no one should have to._

_ Grissom inhaled deeply and turned to Horatio. "If you'd be comfortable with it, you can sleep at my place."_

_ Horatio's brow went up in surprise before he nodded, "That's very kind of you."_

_ Shaking his head, Grissom replied, "I don't want to loose any more time on this case than you do, this just makes the most sense. Let's go."_

_####_

_ The drive to Grissom's apartment in the Denali was mostly quiet. Horatio was, as Grissom had suspected, not much for talking unless he felt he needed to._

_ He looked from the passenger window to Grissom as something came to him. "On the phone this morning," he paused, choosing his words, "I didn't mean to be rude."_

_ Grissom looked briefly at the other man, catching his reflection in Horatio's sunglasses, before focusing on the road again. "You were being rude?"_

_ Horatio smiled slightly to himself before responding, "I wouldn't let you finish your __sentences. It's...I've been working on this case for four days and I am...," He swallowed, "I have spent every moment trying to find those kids." He glanced at Grissom before returning his gaze to the houses they were driving by._

_ "Then there's nothing to apologize for," Grissom replied simply._

_ Grissom let Horatio into his house when they arrived and immediately showed him to the master, indeed the only, bedroom. "Bathroom's just down the hall. Would you like to shower?"_

_ "Yes, please." Horatio said firmly. A shower seemed like a great idea to him. Nevada was dry and his fair skin was irritated by it._

_ As Horatio opened his slim toiletry kit, he silently cursed to himself. _

_ Grissom opened a cupboard next to the bedroom and pulled a towel from it which he handed to Horatio. "Use whatever you need to in there, I'll make us something quick to eat."_

_ As Grissom turned to leave, Horatio cleared his throat and Grissom looked back at him. "Do you have an extra razor?" _

_ Grissom thought for a moment, the skin around his eyes crinkling as his brow furrowed. "I have fresh blades." He offered._

_ "Thank you." Horatio looked down, almost sheepishly Grissom thought._

_ Grissom waited until he could catch Horatio's eyes before replying, "it's not a problem." He noticed for the first time that along with his red hair, Horatio possessed incredibly blue eyes. The colour of blue the ocean is over shallow, sandy beaches when it's calm._

_ As quickly as the thought came, it was replaced by concern over whether or not there was actually enough food in his fridge to feed two people and he left Horatio in his room._

_ Horatio closed the door and slowly looked about what he assumed was Grissom's guest room as he unbuttoned his dress shirt. Light grey paint and dark grey carpet accented with dark wood cupboards gave the space a calming feel. There were no pictures on the night stands, only a pad of paper, pen and phone on one. It was neat and clean and comforted Horatio because it reminded him of his apartment in that it barely looked lived in. This was mostly true excepting the half finished crossword puzzle he saw on the other night stand. This made Horatio smile as he wrapped the towel around his waste and walked to the bathroom._

_ Horatio walked quietly into the kitchen, phone in his hand, hair damp but combed. Grissom looked up and could not suppress a smile when he saw the orange, white and blue NYC Knicks sweats coupled with a plain grey T-shirt to be the Lieutenant's attire._

_ "Knicks fan?" He asked, still smiling._

_ Horatio, feeling somewhat more human after a shower and shave, shook his head and smiled back. "If you're going to work the beat in New York, you gotta be."_

_ Grissom spooned some stew into a bowl next to the salad he had set in front of Horatio. "You worked in New York?"_

_ Picking up the cup of tea that had also been set in front of him, Horatio nodded. "I was born in New York."_

_ Grissom sat down across the counter from Horatio and dug into his own food. Gesturing with his fork before he finished swallowing, Grissom asked "What precipitated the move to Florida?"_

_ "My family is in Miami."_

_ "Kids?" Grissom asked because he had seen no wedding ring and was curious._

_ Horatio cleared his throat and Grissom could see the question had thrown him. "Um."_

_ "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." Grissom quickly said._

_ Horatio smiled slightly, "No, it's just, um, I recently found out I have a son." As he finished speaking he looked directly at Grissom and noted the further questions in his face. The other man chose not to ask them though, instead letting Horatio decide if he would continue. _

_ Possibly because he wanted to see what this man he seemed to have something in common with would think, Horatio did continue. He stumbled over the explanation. "Almost 20 years ago, I was working undercover when I met this woman and thought, um, thought it could be serious."_

_ Grissom had stopped chewing and was paying close attention, feeling like this information was somehow privileged._

_ "Except, after three months of seeing one another," one of his eyebrows went up briefly, "she disappeared. I couldn't...find her, didn't hear from her. And then...chance brings this child who looks just like me into interrogation."_

_ "Interrogation?" Grissom asked, surprised._

_ Horatio didn't answer for a few moments. He looked, if anything, sad but it was hard to see. Clearing his throat, he continued, "He's in prison, waiting for an evidentiary hearing on charges of kidnapping."_

_ Grissom was a little dumbfounded, Horatio looked at the plate in front of him._

_ "What's his name?" Grissom asked after a few minutes had passed._

_ "Kyle." Horatio said, a hint of pride behind the name._

_ Grissom took another bite of food and chewed thoughtfully. Swallowing, he said "I'm not one to...make character judgements often or to..." Horatio watched Grissom's lips and jaw move as he spoke, "give comfort where I know I can provide none but, If Kyle is anything like his father, Horatio, he'll be all right." Grissom wasn't sure what made him say it or why he believed it so strongly but Horatio seemed to take some comfort in his words._

_ After some time passed with only the sound of food being chewed, Horatio broke the __silence. "You've never been married, never had kids."_

_ Grissom smiled deeply, "what makes you say that?"_

_ "Your fridge is as empty as mine."_

_ Both men looked at one another before laughing quietly._

_ After setting the dishes to the side of the sink, Grissom went to his bedroom and began removing his own pajamas from a drawer. Horatio watched him with a frown._

_ "I'll be on the couch but please, avail yourself of anything in the house and don't worry about waking me." Grissom stated as he was about to leave._

_ "You only have one bed?" Horatio asked, concerned._

_ "I do. I don't want you to worry about it." Grissom saw that was exactly how Horatio felt._

_ Grissom shook his head and pointed to his bed, "Sleep, you've only got about four hours before we need to be awake again." With that, he turned to leave._

_ "Gil?"_

_ "Mmm?" Grissom turned back and met those pools of ocean blue once more._

_ "Thank you." Horatio said simply._

_ "Your welcome," he replied, his tone in and of itself welcoming and reassuring._

_ Both men were asleep as soon as their heads hit their respective pillows. Neither of them could remember dreaming._


	4. Chapter 4

_ When the alarm on Grissom's watch went off four hours later, his eyes shot open. Subconsciously, he had been unable to commit to those few precious hours of rest. He stretched, threw back the covers and walked softly to his bedroom. He had meant to knock but found himself opening the door and looking down at Horatio sleeping._

_ Horatio was lying on his side with his knees drawn up slightly, one arm under his pillow, the other lying across his chest. A few ginger locks of hair hung across his forehead. Grissom leaned on the doorway and watched the other man's breathing shift the folds of his t-shirt. _

_ After a moment, he spoke Horatio's name. His blue eyes fluttered open and focused questioningly on Grissom._

_ "It's time to get up."_

_ Grissom smiled as he left, hearing Horatio groaning softly as he rose from the mattress._

_ Five minutes later, Horatio exited the room dressed in a crisp black suite and white dress shirt. His phone rang as he watched Grissom head to the room._

_ "Eric."_

_ "H, I had an idea about Callum. We never found a computer but I figure he must have been connected to the internet somehow. I checked into the Miami Public Library and he has accessed the internet from a few of their locations. A warrant got us access to his e-mail account and he had made some interesting contacts out west." _

_ Horatio tensed as Eric spoke. "I need those names Eric."_

_ "They're in your in-box already, H." _

_ "Thank you, Eric." He snapped his phone shut as Grissom appeared, dressed in a dark blue polo shirt and fresh slacks._

_ "News?"_

_ "Good news." Horatio replied, returning to the room to get his laptop. He explained Eric's findings as he booted it up and opened his e-mail. "I need you to phone Nick and see if any of these address' came up in his search."_

_ They headed out as Grissom was on the phone to Nick. As Grissom pulled away from the curb, he was calling Brass to inform him of the suspect's location and request backup. _

_ Horatio seemed at ease but at his core, he was vibrating with excitement. Grissom looked full of concentration as he manoeuvred through the light afternoon traffic. _

_ The house they eventually found themselves in front of was large, ensconced on a sprawling and, by Vegas standards, lush property. Both men climbed down from the Denali and made their way up the wide slate walkway towards the generous oak, double doors._

_ Grissom pointed out a damaged flower bed next to the driveway and the small yellow flowers in it to Horatio. They ascended the steps. Grissom grabbed Horatio's arm before he had the chance to rap on the door. The Vegas supervisor's eyes were narrowed, his ear cocked towards the door._

_ "There's music playing inside."_

_ Horatio didn't pretend to understand, "what does that mean?"_

_ "Right now, nothing. Knock." Grissom stood back and unbuttoned his holster as he watched Horatio take out his pistol and unlatch the safety. _

_ Gun held by his side, Horatio pounded on the door with his free hand. "Derrick Marsden, police, open up," He hollered. _

_ A man in his forties, dressed in business casual attire answered the door. "Gentlem-"_

_ Horatio forced him to back up into the entranceway with a gun in his face. "Where are they?" He snarled above what, they could now hear, was loud opera music._

_ Grissom stepped in behind Horatio and moved farther into the foyer, listening._

_ "I don't know what you're speaking of but you are putting your job in jeopardy, officer." Marsden was trying to hide his fear but his hands were visible above his head._

_ "Andrew Callum and the two boys, where are they?" _

_ Marsden sneered at him. It took the very essence of Horatio's self control not to pistol whip that look off of his face._

_ "Mr. Marsden?"_

_ The two men in their tense stand off looked over at Grissom. He had wandered over to the central control for all the systems in the house and now stood looking at them, his hand on a round dial._

_ "____Oberon__ was never meant to be listened to with the bass so high," Grissom turned the dial and muted much of the heavier sound, "it kills Titania's soprano."_

_ In the relative quiet that now pervaded the house, a thumping could be heard coming from upstairs._

_ "Hold him," Grissom told Horatio, before he ascended the steps to the upper floor as quickly as he could, gun held before him. Horatio kept his gun aimed squarely at the no longer smug Marsden but his mind was with Grissom, wishing their backup was here. _

_ Unable to clear the house, Grissom moved cautiously towards the thumping, checking over his shoulder as he went. Upon reaching a room he took to be facing the backyard of the property, he heard the muffled sounds of a voice. Grissom took a deep breath, steadied himself, then shoved the door open and moved his weapon from side to side. His eyes swept the room before falling on the small figure tied to the bed._

_ In the seconds it took him to holster his gun and move towards the child, Grissom saw enough to haunt him the rest of his days. Adam Renfrew had a mop of curly black hair from under which tear-reddened, haunted eyes stared at Grissom with intense relief. He was naked, gagged and tied to the corner of a bed. The small body was covered in bruises and there was fresh blood on the __bed._

_ The child was shaking and crying in a panic as Grissom approached him. He pulled the gag from Adam's mouth and an incomprehensible mix of wails and cries came from him. Grissom kneeled next to the bed and hugged him tightly. "Adam? Adam? I'm with the police, okay Adam? No one's going to hurt you any more." As he spoke softly to the child in his arms, Grissom took out a pocket knife so that Adam couldn't see it, flicked it open with his thumb and began cutting the rope that was binding him. His hands free, Adam wrapped his long, skinny arms around Grissom's neck fiercely. _

_ Jim, Catherine and several officers, all with weapons ready, filed into the foyer of Derrick Marsden's house. _

_ "Make sure the place is clear guys," Jim ordered the officers. He holstered his gun and stepped behind Marsden. "Derrick Marsden, you are under arrest for aiding and abetting a felon, obstruction of justice and generally being a piece of crap." Jim handcuffed him speedily and led him outside as Horatio holstered his gun and took the stairs two at a time. _

_ "Grissom?" He called out with urgency._

_ Stopping at the doorway as the officers were yelling 'clear', Catherine held her hand to her mouth and stared in shock. Horatio came up behind her and looked into the room over her shoulder. Grissom had his back to the door and was cradling Adam Renfrew in his arms._

_ When he noticed them over his shoulder, Grissom called to Catherine, "Get rescue and get me a blanket." _

_ Catherine turned after a moment of staring at her supervisor and the child, heading down the stairs and barking efficient orders into her cell. _

_ Horatio walked slowly into the room. "Adam?" he gently spoke the child's name as he took off his suite jacket. Adam looked up at him fearfully then pulled himself closer to Grissom. "Adam, I'm a police officer. My name is Horatio."_

_ The child was still silent and shaking but he removed his face from Grissom's shoulder and looked at Horatio. The red head gave him the smile that he had been blessed with. It seemed to give every victim he had ever interacted with just enough reassurance. Adam was mesmerized by it._

_ Grissom looked from Adam to Horatio as he felt the boy stop shaking violently. Horatio's eyes never left Adam's._

_ "Hi. I'm going to wrap you in my jacket, okay son?" With Grissom's help, he manoeuvred the soft fabric around the child so that Adam didn't have to let go. "There. Nice work partner. Now, what do you say we get you out of here?"_

_ Adam nodded his head quickly and started to shake again. Grissom tightened his grip and levered off of his bent knee to stand. As he walked from the room, he could feel Horatio behind him and see Adam was fixated on the Lieutenant._

_ An ambulance pulled up outside as they reached the foot of the stairs. Horatio moved ahead of Grissom and held out his hand to slow their progression._

_ "Wait here a minute." He strode out to the front steps where he could see Jim jotting notes next to the cruiser that held Marsden. "Jim?" The captain looked up at Horatio. "Can you have them get Marsden out of here?" _

_ Jim looked at Horatio a moment before saying "yeah, sure," and waving over a nearby officer._

_ Once the cruiser was gone, Horatio motioned to Grissom to bring the child out. Realization dawned on Jim as he watched Grissom gingerly walk from the house. _

_ Adam refused to let go of Grissom as he tried to place the child on a stretcher. Grissom looked down at him, somewhat at a loss._

_ Horatio gave Grissom a lengthy look before letting his gaze drop to Adam. "How about...how about we ride with you, partner? That sound like a plan?" _

_ Grissom called Catherine over. "Cath, we're going to take Adam to emergency. I need you to contact Greg, Warrick and Sara and get their help processing this house." Catherine nodded at him. He knew this was killing her inside but he felt her commitment to finishing this, to finding the animal behind it all._

_ "All right kiddo, I need you to come over here for just a second so Grissom can get into the ambulance, okay?" Horatio held his arms out towards Grissom, keeping his smile trained on Adam._

_ The boy didn't really respond but neither did he protest as Horatio took him from Grissom, careful to keep him wrapped in his jacket. Grissom made certain Horatio had the child before he climbed into the back of the ambulance and took a proper blanket from one of the EMT's. _

_ "Okay partner, one, two, three." Horatio said to Adam before stepping one foot onto the bumper and placing him in Grissom's blanket swathed arms. He then climbed in and managed to seat himself next to Grissom as the doors were slammed shut and sirens started._

_ Adam was starting to look dazed, Grissom noted, adrenalin leaving his system._

_ "I really need to have a cursory look at him," said the female EMT seated in back with them._

_ Grissom knew this was necessary but was worried about shocking Adam further._

_ "I, uh, I might have a way to distract him a little," Horatio said as he pulled out his cell. "Adam, I know...I know who you might like to talk to." Scrolling through a list of contacts as he spoke, Horatio finally came to the number he was looking for and hit send._

_ "Mr. Renfrew, please." Horatio again focused a smile on Adam. "Hello Mr. Renfrew, it's Lieutenant Caine calling. Yes. I do, in fact I have Adam right here and he would very much like to hear your voice." _

_ Adam's eyes grew wider as he focused on Horatio's voice and finally had the ear piece of the phone gingerly held to his ear. "Daddy?"_

_ Grissom managed to take the phone from Horatio so he could hold it as the EMT started to pull back the blanket and jacket and look over Adam's wounds. From what he could tell, there was a great deal of crying coming from the other side of the phone but Adam, a testament to the resilience __of children, was smiling and babbling._

_ Grissom looked to Horatio who sat leaning over with his elbows on the knees of his dress pants, smiling at Adam. He briefly met Grissom's eyes before looking at the floor of the ambulance._

_####_

_ When they reached the hospital, Grissom and Horatio were allowed to accompany Adam into his room after the EMT spoke with a doctor and explained that his injuries were non-life threatening. Horatio stood by the door, hands on his hips, and Grissom sat next to Adam on the exam table as the doctor looked him over from head to toe. The doctor was kind and quick so that any prod or movement that made Adam wince was over before he knew why he had been upset about it._

_ When he was done, the doctor thanked Adam for bearing with him and turned to face Horatio, his smile disappearing in a instant. He took Horatio towards the door and spoke quietly to him._

_ "That child is going to need 8 stitches and I'll be damned if he doesn't have a couple of fractured ribs. I've never seen anything like this in 26 years of working emergency. You catch the son of a bitch that did this."_

_ Horatio looked at him askance briefly before returning his gaze to the floor, "I understand Doctor." He took a breath, "Doctor, I'll need one of your nurses to bring a SART kit and a camera."_

_ "Of course."_

_ "I'd like for either myself or Doctor Grissom to perform the exam." He rumbled._

_ "You're both crime scene guys, I've got no problem with that." What the doctor didn't say was 'take care of him.' He didn't have to. That was exactly what Horatio was trying to do._

_ Turning back to the table, Horatio saw that Adam had managed to wrap himself up in the suit jacket again, his paper dress peeking out._

_ "You know what your dad told me Adam?" Horatio asked softly._

_ Adam shook his head vaguely._

_ "He told me...that he will be on the next plain out and that he will see you soon." Horatio looked over his shoulder as a nurse walked in an placed a small kit on the chair by the door. She handed Horatio the camera._

_ "Thank you nurse."_

_ "Shall I stay?" She was in her thirties and had a calming, patient air about her._

_ Horatio's worry at this point was further traumatizing the boy. He hoped that a woman in the room might help Adam feel easier about what he had to do next. He nodded at the nurse and she moved towards Adam and introduced herself._

_ Horatio brought the chair and kit closer and stood facing Adam with the camera around his __neck. The camera alone had caused fear to seep back into the boys eyes. Talking to him quietly and __calmly, measuring out his words, Horatio got Adam to focus on him._

_ "Adam, I know you are tired but...I need you to stay with us a little bit longer, okay, because we need your help."_

_ Adam was focused on Horatio's eyes again. Grissom was also focused on Horatio because he couldn't believe the effect the other man was having on this poor child._

_ "We need your help with two things, okay, one is finding Danny."_

_ This had a pronounced affect on Adam who spoke coherently for the first time. "I want to help find Danny."_

_ Horatio smiled at the little boy's falsetto and tried to keep his composure in the face of such earnestness in one so young and so afraid. He understood, after all, the burden of being a big brother._

_ "Thank you, thank you Adam. The other thing we need your help with is making sure the people who did this to you never hurt anyone else, ever again." Horatio's look had turned sombre but Adam nodded in response to this second request._

_ "Good man," Horatio said as he turned and opened the kit to his side. "Now, Adam, the way you can help us is by letting us collect anything those men may have left on you." He showed Adam the kit full of swabs with their heads encased in plastic capsules, tape lifts and wooden spatulas. "You can have either myself, or Grissom or nurse Colby collect those things from you," Horatio put the kit down and again focused on Adam as he spoke, "and some of it may be uncomfortable but we will let you know exactly what we are doing as we go along, okay?"_

_ Adam was clearly afraid again but he had been infused with some strength at the mention of Danny. Grissom could see the resolve in his little face as he pointed to Horatio._

_ "You want me to do it?" Horatio tilted his head and asked to be sure. Adam nodded at him and moved minutely closer to Grissom._

_ Grissom started to remove the jacket from Adam's shoulders and kept a reassuring hand on his shoulder or back throughout the exam. Horatio moved quickly without rushing the child, his voice steady as he told him what each instrument was for. _

_ Horatio had only even done two other assault kits on children in his entire career. As he held a square ruler next to the bruise on Adam's knee he had contracted from trying to be heard, Horatio knew he would remember this one as clearly and vividly tonight as he would 10 years from now. It's clarity and lingering horror on par with the previous two._

_ Grissom hugged Adam in the hardest parts, when tears squeezed themselves through the boy's tightly shut eyes. _

_ "All done," Horatio said as he capped the lense of the camera. Adam quickly grabbed the suit jacket again and held it to his chest, the folds of the fine, soft fabric covering most of the small boy. "Thank you Adam, you were very brave."_

_ Horatio snapped off one latex glove and unclipped his badge. "I need to speak with Grissom __for a minute, okay Adam? But we will be right by the door and Nurse Colby will be right here with __you." _

_ Adam nodded as a small hand emerged from the folds of the jacket and grasped the weight of Horatio's badge. Horatio mustered one last smile as he made sure Adam had a grip on his badge, then turned away and walked to the door._

_ Ripping off the other glove and tossing the pair in the trash, Horatio closed his eyes tightly and sighed. 15 minutes had seemed like a lifetime._

_ Grissom looked at the other man with concern as he stood with his hands on his hips, head bent. "Do you need a minute?" _

_ Horatio looked up and was caught for a moment in the intensity of Grissom's dark grey eyes. He saw the anxiety in them and knew he must be showing more distress than he wanted to. He shook his head, "No, no I need to talk to Marsden." The strength of Horatio's voice grew as he spoke until the name Marsden came out as a growl._

_ Grissom let his gaze drift to Adam, "we need to leave him here. I wish we didn't."_

_ "Every minute we sit on this evidence, we get farther from Danny." Horatio said quietly._

_ "I know, I know." Grissom sighed and walked to Adam._

_ "May I have Horatio's badge?" Grissom asked, his hand outstretched. Adam reluctantly placed it into Grissom's palm._

_ "Thank you." Grissom's gaze was more direct, less comforting than Horatio's. His voice, however, was calm and reassuring and it was what Adam focused on as Grissom took the jacket and wrapped it about Adam's shoulders. "Horatio and I need to go now so that we can take what you've given us and start trying to find Danny. Nurse Colby will be here with you until your dad comes." He gave Adam a steady look until the boy nodded at him. Grissom nodded at him and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder before he turned away._

_ Horatio smiled at Adam quickly before ducking out of the room, knowing he had used most of the energy he needed to present a calm face. Knowing that if he stayed any longer, Adam might not be so comforted by his presence._

_ He followed Grissom out of the hospital mechanically, slipping his sunglasses on, his mind full of Derrick Marsden. Grissom strode to the Denali, lips pursed and locked in his own thoughts. As he went to buckle his seat belt, he looked at the badge in his palm. A stately eagle with wings spread over an ocean fronted city, protecting it. Having never left Las Vegas for long since becoming a CSI, Grissom wondered if Horatio missed his city, or more accurately, whether he felt his city was safe without him. His mind jumping to thoughts of his own team, Grissom supposed that Horatio had left Miami in good hands. It was then that he realized that he truly liked Horatio and was not simply suffering his presence in a necessary, bureaucratic cross jurisdictional fashion._

_ "You did..." Grissom found himself at a loss for words, a common occurrence around this man, "you were nothing short of amazing in there with Adam." He offered up the badge as Horatio, somewhat startled out of his thoughts, looked at him._

_ Horatio took the badge carefully and, though he couldn't tell for the sunglasses, looked at __Grissom for a long moment. It was then that he learned something about Grissom. Inherently, __instinctively, Horatio knew that this man had very little in the way of family. He knew because he sensed Grissom's capacity for caring in that compliment, meant to comfort him slightly, and yet he could see that Grissom was shutting down that part of himself to focus on the case. Horatio saw no signs of strain hidden in a worried crease behind that beard, no thoughts for the brutality of what had been done to Adam even though the evidence was all over his shirt. And again, not for an inability to care but because he could turn it off when he knew he needed his mind in a particular space._

_ Horatio could not do this because in Adam, he saw Ray Jr. when he was eight. He saw his brother when they were young. He felt his body tensing in anticipation of a fight because it had been trained that way from such a young age, ready to try insurmountable odds to protect his family. There was nowhere for him to run to in his own mind that he might leave his emotions aside and simply follow the evidence. _

_ Grissom didn't begrudge Horatio his silence and did not wait for a response to his comment. Turning the keys in the ignition, he looked over his shoulder as he backed up. His mind was back to the evidence on the seat behind them. The precious trace that might just give them something, some way of finding Callum. _

_####_

_ Jim was at PD when they pulled up. He didn't ask how the boy was because he didn't want either man to have to find a way to say something good when there was likely little to be had. Jim just nodded in response to Grissom's request that he accompany Lieutenant Caine to interview to speak with Marsden and led the red head into the building._

_ Grissom stepped into his office and shut the door behind him. He placed the SART kit on his desk and opened a drawer underneath it, removing a black collared shirt from it's depths. It wasn't often that he needed his back up clothes, Grissom reflected as he pulled his shirt over his head and off. He stood topless in the dim light of his office and looked at the blood on his shirt. Muscles worked beneath his beard as his jaw clenched and unclenched. He tossed the shirt in the garbage can next to his desk and slipped on the dress shirt, rolling up the sleeves. Narrowing his eyes at the kit as he picked it up, Grissom exited his office._

_####_

_ Horatio took off his sunglasses before opening the door to the interrogation room and striding in. His face was dark as he quietly surveyed Marsden. There was no confidence in Marsden now, he looked afraid. "You've never been to prison, have you, Mr. Marsden." _

_ Marsden squirmed a little. "You know I have no record."_

_ "I do," Horatio growled. "I know a lot of things about you Mr. Marsden. For starters, I know...that you've had a lot of contact with pedophiles who have been to prison."_

_ Marsden shrunk in his chair but said nothing and avoided Horatio's gaze._

_ "Tell me, Mr. Marsden, did they, those friends of yours," he took a step towards Marsden and looked askance at him," did they have pleasant stories to tell you about their time in lock up?"_

_ "What the hell do you want!" Marsden spat at Horatio._

_ "Where is Callum?" Horatio asked evenly. His body was tense, ready. _

_ "I don't know." Marsden muttered._

_ Horatio moved his head from side to side, as if cracking his neck. In reality, he was wrestling his urge to beat something out of Marsden. He moved to stand right beside Marsden, who still would not look at him. Bending down to Marsden ear, he growled, "then what did he get from you?"_

_ Marsden turned his head slowly, meeting Horatio's eyes. "More than you'll ever get from me," he whispered, "I want my lawyer."_

_ Horatio smiled viciously before his hand shot out and grabbed a fist-full of Marsden's Hair. "What did you give him for Adam?" Horatio yelled, his face an inch from Marsden's._

_ Jim burst in the door, "Hey!" He put his hand on Horatio's chest and got him to back up. Stepping in front of Horatio and trying to claim his vision though Horatio easily had four inches on him. Jim addressed him in a low but pointed voice. "He's asked for his lawyer."_

_ Horatio was succeeding in looking over Jim's head at Marsden, jaw clenched, his eyes the colour of the cores of ice bergs. His breathing was uneven. Horatio was loosing the battle with himself._

_ "Hey," Jim said, and Horatio finally looked at him. "____Don't__ give him the pleasure." _

_####_

_ Grissom looked briefly into the interrogation room through the barred window at Marsden's lone figure before entering the room behind it. He saw Horatio standing in, what was now becoming to Grissom, a characteristic pose of his. His hands were on his hips and his eyes were narrowed slightly, focused on Marsden through the one way mirror. Jim was leaning against the back wall, and raised an eyebrow in question when he saw Grissom._

_ "We've got him, dead to rights," Grissom said with a hint of satisfaction._

_ Horatio turned from the window to look at Grissom and, not really knowing why, noted the casual way he was wearing his dress shirt with the first two buttons undone. _

_ Grissom looked to Horatio. "Adam just helped us make an air tight case against Marsden."_

_ "Hmm," Horatio murmured, "But not to find Danny." _

_ "Not yet," Grissom said, showing a little more optimism than he felt in an effort to buoy his clearly despairing partner. _

_ "Let's celebrate the small victories," Jim said, showing the wisdom of one accustomed to settling, as many police officers are often forced to do. "Marsden has been in the periphery of dozens of big pedophile cases around the country and nothing ever stuck to the guy. Now we've got access to his house, his computers. This is big." _

_ Grissom nodded at Jim, sharing his feelings._

_ Horatio crossed his arms and shifted so he could look at Marsden._

_ Jim looked at Horatio then to Grissom and shrugged. "I'm gonna book him and get the ball __rolling. Keep me posted."_

_ "I will," Grissom said, before returning to look at Horatio. He didn't have to be here an hour ago to tell that Horatio had lost his composure while dealing with Marsden. Grissom cocked his head to the side and observed how Horatio's hair, normally perfectly set, was in slight disarray._

_ "Hey," He said softly. Horatio turned his back to Marsden and fixed Grissom with a cold stare._

_ Grissom indicated the door with a flick of his head, "the team's back. Let's go see what they've got." Horatio nodded eventually and walked out with him. Grissom had to resist the urge to put his arm around Horatio's shoulders. But as they walked down the hall, he witnessed Horatio putting himself back together, rearranging his features to hide the anger behind them as he rearranged the locks of his hair. By the time they walked into layout, he had collected himself and was a picture of calm._

_ Grissom was pleased to note his team looked prepared, if a little tired. Sara was looking at a map on the large computer screen while Catherine, Greg and Warrick discussed the contents of a file. They looked up when Grissom and Horatio entered. Sara, however, kept her eyes focused on the screen._

_ "What do we have?" Grissom asked, realizing he himself sounded tired._

_ Catherine raised her eyebrows and sighed, not knowing where to start. "Uh, more than I ever needed to see in my lifetime. Marsden's house has secret rooms and a lot of secrets to go with 'em."_

_ "Yeah," Warrick threw in, "we'll be bringing a lot more charges against him as soon as we're done processing his place but Sara noticed something interesting." _

_ "Marsden's almost as obsessed with his cars as he is with little boys," Sara said, still facing the screen, watching a small red dot meander through the streets of Vegas on a satellite map. "He has pictures of all of his cars throughout the house but when I checked his garage, his mustang was missing." _

_ "Are his cars GPS equipped?" Grissom asked, his heart rate speeding at the thought._

Sara looked over her shoulder at him, "Oh yeah. I just got permission from his service provider to access his account information. We're honing in on the signal now."

Grissom's face split into a grin which caused Sara to blush slightly and turn away, back towards the screen. They all moved closer to her, closer to the screen, watching the view focus and shift.

Horatio, standing in the back with Warrick among the tallest present, furrowed his brow as address' started cropping up in relation to where the dot was.

"He's near Tropicana and Cameron." Warrick said.

"Isn't there an industrial park there, near the Orleans?" Catherine asked the room.

"4693 South Arville street," Horatio said, turning from the screen towards the door. The team turned to look at him. "Marsden has a computer store at that address." He looked at Grissom from the doorway, impatient to be off.

Grissom turned to Warrick, "Find Brass and have him meet us at that location with backup." He turned to the women, "Sara, stay with that signal and notify us is he moves. Catherine, Greg, you're with us."

They broke apart like a football team from a huddle, practically running in anticipation of the completion of this case. Apart from the brief break, they were all of them running into their third shifts.

####

The Denali was entirely silent on the ride to the store. Las Vegas was far from asleep at 10 in the evening but the stretch of road they were on, just west of the strip, had none of the vibrance and life typical of that part of town. They drove through pools of street light, past the occasional car in the opposite lane.

"That's it," Horatio said as a plain row of store fronts came into view. They all shared the same dull white, concrete facade and could only be differentiated based on the glowing signs above the individual doorways.

Grissom pulled the Denali into the shared strip of parking lot and parked as far from the computer store as he could. He turned off the engine and lights and surveyed the store front as he called in their position to dispatch.

Horatio was also eyeing the entrance to the store and knew they weren't going in through the front.

"How are we going to get in there?" Greg asked from the back. "They've got security bars and we'd be making enough noise to let Callum know something is up..." The three older CSI's sensed Greg's nervousness but all agreed, in the backs of their minds, that he was at least thinking the situation through critically.

"Catherine, Greg, I want you to find his car first, it's gotta be around here somewhere. Find it and secure it." He looked into the back seat at his two colleagues, "Be careful. Callum's MO makes it likely he's armed."

Greg looked unsure as he climbed out of the truck but Catherine gave Grissom a steadying look before she herself exited. Grissom watched them setting off down the parking lot.

"I'm thinking Callum may have chose to use the loading bay, less conspicuous than the front door." Horatio stated.

"Agreed."

Horatio looked over at Grissom in the half light shed by a distant street light. The interior of the Denali was dark except for that. Grissom looked from their target and found Horatio's eyes. The two men sat for only a second like this but it seemed one of the longest seconds either of them had ever experienced.

Both of them shared a sense of anticipation, an eagerness to see this case finished, but also a fear of what they would find in that innocuous looking store. They had both been working this job long enough to know that Danny Renfrew's time was up a long time ago and if he was still alive, well...

Horatio could easily contrast his comfort of walking into this potentially dangerous situation with Grissom's reluctant preparedness. Being flipped into the fire with his gun drawn was almost second nature to the Miami CSI. But Grissom would have preferred if this was all about to play out without him or any of his CSI's having to draw their weapons.

Horatio had heard himself referred to as 'intense' on more than once occasion. Sitting there, looking at Grissom, he could understand why. Being out in front, taking the lead, bearing the burden of caring for and protecting these amazing, under-appreciated people; it required nothing less. The kinship he felt with this man was striking.

And he knew, sitting there looking across at his Vegas counterpart, that Grissom felt it too.

They exited the Denali, quietly closing their doors. As Horatio walked confidently towards the rear of the building, he slipped his gun from it's holster and flicked off the safety. Grissom followed, casting his eyes about. When they reached the corner of the building, Horatio looked back at Grissom and the Vegas CSI took out his own weapon.

Horatio looked quickly around the corner and then fell back against the wall before launching himself around it, gun drawn. Grissom followed, gun levelled next to Horatio's shoulder. The loading lot was empty except for a blue or black mustang, parked behind Marsden's computer store. The two men moved closer to it as Greg and Catherine appeared from around the opposite corner and began moving towards the vehicle. Horatio inspected the light spilling from under the door beside the large loading bay as Grissom scanned the car quickly. He shook his head when Horatio looked back at him and moved to the large concrete walkway at chest height that Horatio stood next to. Quietly, Horatio hoisted himself up, somehow managing to keep his gun in his hand. Grissom followed, managing the manoeuvre somewhat less fluidly than Horatio.

Grissom could feel his heart start to race as Horatio looked back him. Horatio had one hand on the door, the other holding his pistol at the ready. Grissom nodded and Horatio stepped back, drawing the door open so Grissom could enter, gun at the ready. He had to let his eyes adjust to the glaring, industrial light they met inside, but he didn't waiver as he stepped inside to let Horatio join him. As Grissom was moving into the main loading area inside from the doorway, a shot ricocheted off of the corner of concrete separating the doorway from the bay proper.

Grissom stepped back and felt Horatio pressing him to the wall with his hand on Grissom's chest. Eyes wide and alert, Horatio moved his hand over Grissom's chest to convince himself that Grissom hadn't been hit.

That done, he turned back to the inches of concrete separating them from the shooter. "Callum?" He yelled.

The two CSI's could hear giddy laughter, high pitched and deranged but definitely that of a male.

"Callum, this is Lieutenant Caine, Miami PD. I'm coming around this corner," Horatio yelled, trying to keep the unstable sounding man from going off the deep end. He took a deep breath and rounded the corner, finding Callum in his sights in a fraction of a second, feeling the trigger beneath his finger and knowing that if necessary, he could be faster.

But Callum didn't have his gun pointed at Horatio. He had it pointed at the small boy he had gripped tightly with one arm.

"You know, Caine, I just wanted to have my fun." Callum's voice and demeanour were definitely erratic. Horatio forced himself to focus on Callum and not the boy. Not the details of the area around them.

"Why don't you let Danny go so we can talk about this." Horatio said loudly. He needed Callum to point his gun away from Danny. Then he could take his shot and know the boy would be safe.

"Why don't you go to hell? Do you have any idea what it took for me to get him? How long I've waited, huh? Do you?" As he continued to speak, Horatio's body tensed watching Callum's blood slicked finger on the trigger.

Grissom could tell Callum was deteriorating by the tone of his voice. He knew, from his position beside Horatio, that Callum did in fact have Danny. They needed to get the boy away from him quickly. Both men knew this.

"I was so good. They all wanted to get me in the pens but I kept my god damned nose clean. I waited. Do you know what it's like to go for _years_ without touching one of them? I needed it so bad..."Callum was sweating, his face contorting.

Horatio didn't respond. Callum was about to do something stupid, that much he was sure of. He just needed that something stupid to be in their favour.

"And I planned and I planned and I planned, for what? For what? To have Hartford's fucking cheapskate van repair screw-"

Andrew Callum never finished this sentence for in that moment, in his instability, he took the gun from Danny's head to gesture with it, as one will when ranting if one is inclined to gestures.

At the same time Horatio was pulling the trigger, more because he sensed at that moment that Callum was coming completely unhinged than he sensed Horatio's movement, Grissom spun on his knee around the corner, found his target and fired.

The end result was the same either way and both men, one standing, one kneeling, looked at the sprawled body of Callum and the slumped form of Danny Renfrew. They both rushed to the child's side, fearing that somehow, one of them had missed.

Another thing that Gil Grissom and Horatio Caine have in common is that they are both expert marksmen. Danny had collapsed because he was exhausted and without Callum holding him up, he could not have stood of his own will.

Grissom watched as Horatio holstered his weapon and gingerly lifted Danny into his arms. Both men knelt there for a moment, listening to the sirens fast approaching. Horatio holding Danny to his chest and breathing heavily, looking at the pavement. Grissom looking at Horatio.


	5. Chapter 5

They didn't travel with Danny to the hospital this time. The child was in such rough shape that he didn't know what was going on, he was barely conscious. Rather than going through it all again, Horatio let the EMT take the small form from his arms. As the child left him, he felt the last of his energy go with him. Case closed. He went and collapsed in the passenger seat of the Denali as Grissom spoke with his team members and made phone calls.

An hour later, Grissom turned to see where Horatio had gotten to and spotted him inside the truck. Speaking one last time with one of the day shift crew who had been called in early, Grissom turned his back on the loading bay. He opened the driver's side door and was about to speak to Horatio when he looked over and saw that the red head was asleep, head resting on his chest as it moved steadily up and down. Grissom smiled and started the engine. Horatio did not wake.

He drove them back to his place, taking the less travelled roads, knowing his mind was tired and not having the heart to wake Horatio to put a seat belt on him.

####

When he finally put the truck into park, Grissom turned the keys and sat for a moment, listening to the engine die and tick with left over heat. He turned to look at Horatio who was still asleep. In that moment, while his mind was sleepy and susceptible to ideas he would normally struggle with while alert, Grissom came to know it was not simply respect and admiration he felt for his counterpart. And because his mind was in that space, it did not truly surprise or trouble him that he found himself attracted to Horatio Caine.

Grissom smiled as he reached over and gently shook the shoulder of Horatio. His eyes flickered open before becoming wide as he sat upright quickly.

"It's okay, we're at my place," Grissom said to Horatio as he looked at Grissom with a hint of panic. "You fell asleep at the scene, in the truck."

Horatio made a grumbling sound of disgust at himself as he rubbed his face with his hands.

"Don't worry about it, I don't think anyone noticed you." Grissom said as he opened the door.

"You did," Horatio said, looking aside to Grissom.

Grissom cocked an eyebrow at him as if to say 'who cares?' before shutting the door. Horatio smiled as he let himself out of the Denali.

Grissom stood at the refrigerator, taking sips from a bottle of water and casting surreptitious glances at Horatio, trying to decide whether or not to talk to him about what was on his mind. On the one hand, Horatio hardly seemed in the proper place to have such a discussion but on the other, Grissom knew he wouldn't be able to stay in Las Vegas for long now that the case was over. This was a limited opportunity, if an opportunity it was, and Grissom found himself questioning what it was he hoped to gain from it. For the second time that night, his heart raced and he looked at Horatio.

Horatio was, accurately sensed by Grissom, in a poor position to be doing any kind of thinking. He was sending text messages to his team to let them know that they had caught Callum. He was also sending a text to Yelina to let her and especially Ray jr. know where he was. He then set a reminder to call the prison in the morning and let Kyle know where he was. That done, he flipped his phone shut and placed it on the kitchen counter, along with his wallet. He gave Grissom a small smile as he made to move towards the bathroom.

Grissom acted. He moved his hand quickly and caught Horatio's wrist as he was walking past. Horatio turned and looked at Grissom who held his gaze intently. He pulled Horatio towards him slowly, keeping their eyes locked, giving him every opportunity to pull away.

Right before their lips touched, Horatio smiled, a feeling of disbelief cropping up along with a familiar quickening of his pulse. As he felt soft lips contacting his, he couldn't believe he'd managed to overlook it. A person vying for his affection and he had been, yet again, too wrapped up in a case to see it coming. This was a fault of his which often caused women to become disinterested long before he'd realized what was going on, before he had a chance to respond.

Grissom, fuelled by Horatio's compliance, reached his other hand up to cup the taller man's head, running his fingers through the fine hair as their mouths opened and their kiss intensified.

Once he was done processing how oblivious he felt, his shock at Grissom's overture and how he felt about it, Horatio wrapped an arm around Grissom's shoulders. His other hand he brought up to Grissom's face and ran his thumb along the coarse hairs on his jaw.

The only sound in the house was the fast inhale and exhale of breath against skin and a soft thud as Grissom pushed Horatio against the wall. Grissom took this opportunity to run his hands along Horatio's shoulders and arms as Horatio kept their mouths joined with his hands on Grissom's cheeks.

When they finally broke apart, they stood wrapped in one another's arms, breathing shakily. Horatio moved his head to rest against Grissom's and favoured him with a soft smile. "Now...how long have you been waiting to do that?" He rumbled softly.

Grissom, his stomach clenching in response to Horatio's sultry tone, grinned. "About five minutes."

Horatio lifted his head from Grissom's and raised his eyebrows in surprise. Grissom also stood up.

"What? When was their supposed to be time for me to think about kissing you in the last two days?" Grissom defended himself reasonably.

Horatio leaned back against the wall and looked at the ceiling, laughing softly to himself. Grissom stood back and looked at him, puzzled.

When Horatio looked back down at Grissom, seeing the concern there, he smiled. "You...you just made me feel better."

Grissom only had a moment to look confused about this before he found strong hands switching their places and pinning him to the wall. The playfulness was gone from both of their demeanours, replaced with an intense focus on each other.

Lifting his hands to the collar of Horatio's stained dress shirt, Grissom began undoing buttons. Horatio kept looking from the fingers carefully parting his shirt to Grissom's face. He was never one to think of the consequences of potentially risky decisions, he trusted his intuition too much for that. He wasn't over thinking this right now. Every fibre in Horatio's body had responded with a resounding 'yes' to the kiss. As he had time to ponder it while his shirt was being removed, Horatio's mind simply asked what his gut thought. His gut thought this had the potential to be one of the least complicated and most fulfilling relationships he had ever had. And that made Horatio smile as Grissom, coming to where the buttons met his pants, pulled the shirt out from them.

Grissom's hands slipped up Horatio's bare chest and over his shoulders, causing the shirt to fall first to his elbows and then to the floor. He was thinking about how slowly undressing Horatio Caine could possibly be among the most erotic things he had ever done. His gaze drifted over the pale skin he had uncovered before his hand grasped Horatio's belt and tugged the taller man to him, allowing Grissom to kiss him again while his fingers moved across warm skin. Inhaling deeply, he thought he could smell the ocean on Horatio, a freshness with a salty tang. His mouth sufficiently occupied, Grissom began undoing the fine leather belt and clasp of Horatio's pants.

Before he could reach the zipper, Grissom's hands were stopped with a firm grip from Horatio as he moved them to Grissom's side.

"You've got to let me catch up," the red head whispered, brushing his lips against Grissom's ear. His deep, gravely voice combined with the feel of his lips caused Grissom to inhale sharply.

Horatio fumbled near the hem of Grissom's shirt, catching his under shirt so as to lift both off at the same time. Dropping the shirts, he started kissing Grissom's neck and working his way down, tasting his skin, smelling his scent, as his hands gripped Grissom's shoulders, arms and chest. He knelt in front of Grissom and looked up into the smoke of his grey eyes as he undid his belt, unzipped his fly. He couldn't say why it was reassuring to find that Grissom wore boxer-briefs but he ran his hands over the dark blue fabric with a smile anyway. His hands worked the skin of Grissom's calfs and thighs, marvelling at the fine but dark hair covering them.

Horatio tended to enjoy the differences in his partners. Different shapes, skin tones, freckles, smells, all of it. He buried his face in Grissom's skin, just above the band of his boxers, kissing, biting, taking him in. He smelled earthy and vaguely of soap.

Grissom was moaning, the feel of Horatio's teeth driving him crazy. He laced his fingers through Horatio's silky hair and gripped tightly. Horatio slipped his fingers into the band of Grissom's boxers and pulled.

Staying on his knees, Horatio satisfied his curiosity and desire causing Grissom to throw his head back and breathe faster, faster. Having never been with another man before, Horatio explored and teased Grissom, taking his time.

Pulling Horatio's head back, Grissom fell to his knees and covered his mouth with his own, preventing himself from giving in completely to Horatio's touch. He kissed him fiercely as he again reached for Horatio's pants and worked them down. They knelt like that, facing each other, kissing, groping and groaning for some time, building the heat in one another.

Pushing Horatio away from him somewhat, Grissom looked him over. Tousled red hair, freckled and pale skin with fine blond hairs covering his wiry arms. He didn't have the toned and cut look Grissom knew he likely had when he was younger but the six-foot-one man looked very good for his age. Smiling and touching Horatio's cheek, he rose from the carpet and walked to his room.

Horatio finished escaping from his pants just as Grissom returned with a small container and foil square. As he sat down, Grissom frowned at the condom wrapper, searching for a date stamp.

A smile split Horatio's face, "Are you making sure that hasn't expired?"

Grissom frowned at him, "I haven't done this in a while...not at home anyway."

The smile still very much on his face, Horatio's eyebrows shot up. "Really," he murmured.

Their eyes met again, both feeling a bit nervous about the next part. Horatio gently wrapped his hand around Grissom's, covering the condom. He placed his other hand on Grissom's chest, feeling the rapid pace of his heart. The tender gesture calmed them both a little.

Having never slept with someone he hadn't first professed his love for, Grissom was wondering if he was making the right decision here. He hadn't necessarily intended that it would go quite this far. If there was a time to say 'stop', it was now.

But he didn't want to.

Neither did Horatio. He opened and slipped the condom on with the same ease that he seemed to do everything else. Then he grasped Grissom by the shoulders and half pushed, half guided him to the floor. Taking his time, he touched and licked almost every inch of Grissom's body, sometimes tickling, sometimes hurting just a little. He clutched the big muscles of Grissom's arms, pecs and thighs, enamoured with the strength there. Not because Grissom was or looked particularly strong, he was shorter and a bit stockier than Horatio, but because he didn't possess the softness of a woman. No feminine curves, no lack of muscle tone. He was different and it drove Horatio wild.

One hand on Grissom's chest, Horatio completed the last step of their dance, causing Grissom to screw his eyes shut at the unexpected intensity of the pain. Bending over so their chest's touched, Horatio looked at Grissom, waiting for his eyes to open.

"You still with me?" He asked breathlessly.

Grissom nodded and wrapped his arms around Horatio. Horatio wriggled one arm around Grissom's shoulder and touched his face with the other, feeling the scratchy hairs of his beard. Then they kissed deeply, passionately, not moving for a while.

When Horatio finally moved his hips, it was just a little bit and slowly, encouraging Grissom to rock with him. Their foreheads met and the sweat there mingled as their grunts and pants filled the room, filled the small space between them.

Grissom threw his head back, emitting all the noises you will never hear from a person except during sex and grasping Horatio's thigh. Feeling the spasms from Grissom where they met, Horatio rasped out a plea to God in Spanish as he continued pushing, pushing them both to the sweet edge, pushing them over it.

####

They held each other so tightly, there would be bruises on Horatio's back the next day but not Grissom's for he never bruised easily. Sticky, slick with sweat and heaving, neither man moved to leave the fullness of their embrace. Instead they savoured the closeness, the almost unbearable heat of each other's bodies.

After several minutes, Horatio felt his mind drifting to sleep and roused himself from Grissom's grasp. He slowly stood and offered Grissom his hand, pulling the other man to his feet. They kissed briefly before Horatio started slowly herding Grissom towards the bed.

Grissom lifted the cover and sat on what he thought of as 'his' side of the bed because it was closer to the door but shifted over to make room for Horatio.

Stretched out to his full length with his head cradled in his hands, Horatio stared at the ceiling with a smile on his face. He felt exhausted but good, like his body was a living thing. It was a feeling that took him back to his days sweating under a sun that baked you from above as it baked you from below, heating up the pavement of his childhood basketball court in New York. A simple, good feeling.

He looked over at Grissom, who was still sitting, and noted a twinge of anxiety in his face. Shifting to lie on his side with his arm cradling his head, he asked, "everything okay?"

"Yes," was his simple response.

Horatio tried again. "What are you thinking about?"

Grissom ran a hand through his salt and pepper curls before turning to look at Horatio. "I'm wondering if I made the right decision."

Horatio heard the purely curious front that Grissom put on that question but knew there was more there, something the other man was avoiding. "And...how will you know if you have?"

Grissom smiled and quirked an eyebrow but there was no amusement in his face. "You'll still be here in the morning."

Exhausted though he was, Horatio sat up and looked Grissom steadily in the eyes. He wasn't one to have casual sex because his life had been anything but casual. He thought he sensed this same conviction in Grissom, though possibly for different reasons. So he started talking in his calm, measured tone, keeping his eyes on Grissom's until he had to look away.

"My father would disappear on us for days. It was a bad habit that my brother picked up but I...I can't stand the thought of not being there, of letting down the people I care about."

He was looking at the bedsheets now, painful memories being harder to wrestle with when one is tired. "So...I'm only going to tell you this once. If you ask me to be here," He looked at Grissom again, "then...that's where I'll be. And I mean here, in this, with you. I don't fool around and I am not interested in one night stands."

"Even when the person you're seeing is 1200 miles away?" Grissom's smile had warmth in it now.

Horatio laid back down. "Sex is fun...but I can wait."

Grissom lay down beside him, their faces an inch apart. Horatio snaked an arm over and around his waist. The last week caught up with both men and they were asleep. If they had slept alone, the Renfrew case would have caused them both insomnia because it had been traumatic. Children involved cases were a sore spot for both of them. But as it stood, Grissom dreamed of his future and Horatio did not dream at all.

####

Irony being what it was, Horatio woke up fumbling through empty covers to discover that Grissom was not in bed with him. He sat up, bleary eyed, and looked about the room. The door was shut but the smell of coffee emanating from it's direction was unmistakable. Slipping on his Knicks sweats, Horatio emerged from the bedroom into the full blown, early morning Nevada sunlight and the smell of breakfast. Grissom was chopping something and humming along to softly playing classical. He was wearing white a t shirt sporting the Yankees logo and a number '7', coupled with black sweats.

Silently, Horatio crept up to Grissom before wrapping his arms around Grissom's shoulders and burying his face in Grissom's neck. He had showered. The soap smell was stronger.

Grissom smiled and leaned back into the embrace. "Good morning."

"It is...it is a very good morning, isn't it?" Horatio's voice was coarse with sleep.

"Coffee?"

Horatio's response was a rumble from deep in his throat that tickled the hairs on the back of Grissom's neck. He took the cup of coffee and sat across the counter from Grissom.

"Do you take anything in it?" He inquired, pushing some greens off of his cutting board and into a skillet.

Horatio shook his head.

"Surprise surprise." Grissom smiled at him. "Now, when was the last time someone made breakfast for you?" Grissom meant it light heartedly.

Horatio paused behind his coffee cup, brow furrowed. He exhaled and set the cup down. The last time, he distinctly remembered, had been with Marisol two days before the shooting.

Grissom looked up from the stove and lost his smile. Horatio looked at him with eyes that just hinted at sadness.

"I have...so much to tell you." He rumbled.

Grissom set a plate of food down in front of him and put both hands on the counter, watching him for a moment. "You know, I want to have all the time in the world to hear it."

Horatio felt, looking into those grey eyes, that he had never been taken so seriously in all his life.

Grissom sat down next to him and sipped his coffee. They sat in silence for a few seconds before Horatio picked up his phone off of the counter and looked at it. He ran his thumb over the smooth exterior before flipping it open.

"Will you excuse me?"

Grissom, figuring it was starting, that Horatio had to get back to the real world and the paperwork, nodded absent-mindedly. He only started listening to the conversation over the music halfway through. It was then he noticed that Horatio had been looking at him the entire time.

"...well, there will be paperwork from the Renfrew case but I will have to deal with that. I need you to handle the lab for three days. Okay. I understand. I," he smiled and laughed with an exhale of breath, "I will Calleigh. Don't hesitate to call me, all right?"

Horatio closed the phone and set it aside, refocusing on the plate of food in front of him. "This is delicious," he said casually.

"Did you just do what I think you did?" Grissom asked, brow furrowed, lips pursed.

"I can't buy us all the time in the world but," he paused, "I can give us just a little more."

Grissom sat looking at Horatio for a moment before taking a forkful of food. After several seconds of chewing in silence, Horatio cleared his throat.

"The last time someone made me breakfast, it was my wife and it was two years ago..."

####

Grissom called in and went to work late that day. After doing the most thorough job of clearing his desk of paperwork that Catherine had ever seen, he announced he was taking a couple of days off.

"Going on a trip?" Catherine asked, suspicious.

"No. I have a friend in town and they've never been to Vegas. Thought I'd show them around." Grissom was deadpan, unreadable.

"Really?" Catherine asked sceptically, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorway to his office.

"Yes," Grissom replied, turning to look at her. "I thought I'd start with the body farm."


End file.
